Ethiopia implements strategy to support refugees and host communities

Ethiopia is making progress in implementing its 10-year comprehensive refugee response strategy expected to benefit refugees and positively influence host communities.

Ethiopia’s version of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework (CRRF) is designed to realise the nine pledges the country made during the adoption of the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants in September 2016. The framework combines development and humanitarian aid to benefit both refugees and host communities by facilitating durable solutions.

As the second largest refugee hosting nations in Africa, Ethiopia hosts over 900,000 refugees in its 27 refugee camps spread across six regions. Three quarters of the refugees originate from South Sudan and Somalia, while the rest come from Eritrea, Sudan and 15 other countries.

Ethiopia made the nine pledges for the benefit of refugees at the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, which it co-hosted on 20 September 2016 in New York.

To create possibilities for the social integration of refugees, the pledges include expanding the “out-of-camp” policy, providing work permits, increasing enrolment of refugees in all levels of education, enhancing social services for refugees, civil registration of refugees, and allowing them to open bank accounts, obtain driving licenses and access all other benefits which are accessible to foreigners with legal residence permits.

“Following the approval of the revised draft law that provides for the handling of refugees, all aspects of the nine pledges will be fully launched,” Deputy Director of Ethiopia’s Administration for Refugees & Returnees Affairs (ARRA), Mr Jemal Zeynu told the Ethiopian News Agency.

Civil registration of refugees, including birth, marriage, divorce and death, started in October 2017 and has provided retroactive registration rights to the approximately 70,000 refugee children born in the country over the past 10 years.
The Biometric Information Management System was initiated in 2017 to record basic information on refugees around the country. The biometric system and civil registration will enable refugees to access comprehensive refugee response framework (CRRF) opportunities.
Through funding from the European Union, the United Kingdom and other sources, Ethiopia is constructing $500 million worth of industrial parks to boost local economies and help integrate refugees. The parks are expected to create up to 100,000 jobs, 30% of which will be reserved for refugees.

At least 10,000 hectares of irrigable land will also be provided to allow 20,000 refugee and host community households to engage in farming. The agricultural projects will allow for the local integration of refugees who have lived in Ethiopia for 20 years or more. 1,000 hectares of land has already been allotted to refugees in the Somali region allowing some 411 refugee households to engage in farming.
John Magok, a South Sudanese refugee who attended one of the national consultations being held to define the modes of implementation of the CRRF, said the framework “will bring a paradigm shift on the way refugees are treated in Ethiopia by offering them livelihood opportunities. They can start a new life, which will give them a sense of safety, acceptance, and hope in life.”

TMP – 18/04/2018

Photo credit: UNHCR/Diana Diaz. A UNHCR staff helps an Eritrean refugee boy to capture his finger prints in the new biometric system.